Danone Caps Bottle Recycling Labels, Ending EU Greenwashing Case

Danone has agreed to rewrite the recycling claims on its plastic water bottles, closing out a greenwashing complaint that targeted the world's three biggest bottled-water sellers. The French food and beverage giant joins Nestlé and Coca-Cola in conceding that its "100% recycled" messaging told consumers less than the full story.

The commitments, announced Oct. 22 by the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), require all three companies to specify that their 100% recycled plastic claims apply only to the bottle body — not the cap and the label. The companies have also pledged to stop suggesting a closed recycling loop and to ensure labeling and marketing no longer misleads consumers about the environmental benefits of plastic bottles.

What triggered the case?

BEUC, together with member organizations from 13 countries, filed a complaint against Danone, Nestlé and Coca-Cola with EU authorities in November 2023. The group alleged the companies' recyclability claims did "not comply with the EU rules on unfair commercial practices."

At the heart of the complaint was green imagery — specifically the closed recycling-loop logo that BEUC said promoted "the false idea of environmental neutrality." That's a pointed phrase. A bottle you drink once and discard is not environmentally neutral, whatever the circular arrow on the label implies.

How the three companies responded

The concessions came in stages, not all at once:

• Coca-Cola moved first, announcing last year it would revise labeling on some products and add a disclaimer clarifying which portion of the bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic. It also said it would drop green imagery such as the closed-loop logo.
• Nestlé followed in March, committing to update recycling claims on its plastic water bottles.
• Danone is the last of the three to revise its claims.

The European Commission confirmed in a separate statement that it concluded its dialogue with Coca-Cola in June 2025 and with Nestlé in February 2026.

Danone isn't a bit player here. The company ranks as the world's second-largest producer of packaged water and owns Evian, Volvic and Aqua — brands that sit in millions of European refrigerators.

Why the labels mattered

"Presenting a bottle as 100% recycled or recyclable is simply misleading and must stop, as must the green imagery that suggests that plastic drink bottles have no environmental impact," BEUC Director General Agustín Reyna said in the Oct. 22 release. "Consumers need to be able to trust companies' environmental claims."

The distinction is more than fine print. A cap and label that aren't recycled plastic mean the "100%" claim covers only part of the product in a shopper's hand. And a closed-loop icon implies the bottle comes back as a bottle, indefinitely — which the complaint says it doesn't.

What's left unspoken: the commitments cover claims, not packaging. The plastic itself, and the waste stream behind it, remains as before.

For marketers, the takeaway is blunt: environmental claims that survive scrutiny in one market can still fail in another, and EU consumer authorities will chase the wording down to the cap and label.